Is England heading for a new year lockdown? That’s the suggestion in several papers today after chief scientific officer Patrick Vallance used a government press conference on Monday to declare that measures would likely ‘need to be increased’ in areas not currently under Tier 4. This comes after Matt Hancock suggested those parts of England currently facing the toughest restrictions — London and the South East — could remain under restrictions for months to come until the vaccine has been sufficiently rolled out. Now conversation in government has turned to which areas will join them.
As things stand, 16.4 million people are in Tier 4, 19.7 million in Tier 3, 16.1 million in Tier 2 and 856,000 in Tier 1 — the lightest restrictions. These tiers will be reviewed at the end of the month and Johnson is under growing pressure from government scientific advisers to consider national measures.
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